While individuals in influential positions like Brooks continue to scoff at the warnings of the scientific community and mock the sufferings of the public, the rest of the world, quite literally, burns.

To solve the freshwater problem that is now evident around the globe, we must first understand how much water is actually available, how much we use, to what purpose, using what system, in what condition, and with what realistic capacity given rapid climate change and its visible and continuing catastrophic effect.

California continues to struggle with the drought, and the state has placed emergency restrictions on water use. In June, the State Water Resources Control Board rescinded the permits of some of California's water rights holders to divert water from springs and streams in watersheds all over the state.

If that climate and irresponsible water use and management further delimits the amount available for all uses just in the critical climate and under-supply we know today, what will the inevitable change in water valuation and consequent increase in price mean for the cost of a Volkswagen or anything else on earth?

Just after 5 p.m. on July 8, 2015 the sky over Mira, Italy, turned charcoal-grey and thunder rumbled in the distance. The storm we had been told would break the insufferable humidity and high temperatures that had suffocated the Veneto Region and most of Italy for days was on its way.

Debates about water in California, the western U.S., and indeed, worldwide, have traditionally focused on the question of how best to further expand water supply to meet some hypothetical future increase in water demand.

Not to be a buzz kill, but if you light up a joint or unwrap that edible, chances are your weed came from an illegal grow farm in Northern California where forests were cleared, rivers were sucked dry or tainted with chemicals, and animals were poisoned.

As we consider water as the new paradigm, we probably should begin not at the top of the user pyramid, but at the bottom, with a better calculation of our own water footprint, a measure of the amount used to produce each of the goods and services we use, directly and indirectly.